Closing in on Palmyra. Mosul Begins, King Abdullah Spills Info on Turkey and Syria

Next Cold War Roundup 3/25/16

Syrian forces close in on the main city of Palmyra as various hills and sites are recaptured including an important citadel today. Iraqi military command says the long battle for Mosul has officially begun. US military involvement in Iraq continues to grow as games are played with the meaning of “combat” and “boots on the ground”. Jordan’s king accused Turkey of exporting terrorism to Europe and told of a midair confrontation between Russia, Israel and Jordan in southern Syria in January. A ceasefire and peace talks on Yemen are planned for April.

_ In the case of “Firebase Bell” the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed there have a mission of “force protection” for “coalition advisers and Iraqi forces.” When asked if they will “provide forward protection to Iraqi forces” Col. Warren did not deny that they would play this role but said there was no “forward movement of the Iraqi forces” yet. (His last press conf. was March 21. Iraqi forces have now begun forward movement toward Mosul.) Warren doesn’t consider this to be an official combat role.

Battle for Mosul Officially Begins

_ The Iraqi joint operations command said that its army and Popular Mobilisation paramilitary force “have begun the first phase of conquest operations” on Thursday. Several villages have already been taken between Qayyarah and Makhmur. Lt. Gen. McFarland believes it will take about a year to recapture Mosul.

_ On Thursday, Fox News reported on the “expanding combat role” of US troops in Iraq as the battle to retake Mosul from ISIS escalates. An anonymous US official said the “American combat role” expanded on Thursday when US marines provided “targeting assistance and artillery fire to support Iraqi troops inching forward to retake Mosul.” US fighter jets did airstrikes during Thursday’s operations. Another US official said this wasn’t an expanded combat role because it was support requested from the Iraqis.

Midair Confrontation Between Russia, Israel and Jordan

_ King Abdullah of Jordan told members of US Congress on January 11 that he had told the Russians “one bullet across the agreed border in the south, all gloves are off” after a midair confrontation when Russian planes “were on a mission to survey Israeli defences on the Syrian border.” Abdullah also said he wanted to wipe out al Nusra and he accused Israel of looking the other way with al Nusra because they were enemies of Hezbollah.

Aleppo

Mission Creep in the Middle East

_ Trevor Timm believes that with this latest admission of more troops deployed to Iraq War 3.0, “More troops in Iraq will sow the exact same chaos as America’s Libya folly” and that “the US is will be dragged into another ground war in the Middle East despite the administration’s insistence that it does not want to get caught up in one.” Timm cites the expansion of ISIS in Libya, different groups “vying for power” and the failed state where no government can rule. “But the fact remains: our military interventions have created the generation of terrorists that fight us now.” Timm wants to know when the cycle will stop.

Obama Says He Failed to Get Two-State Solution in Israel-Palestine

“This is not something I was able to get done […] I am not that hopeful that it’s going to happen in the next nine months. It’s been 60 years; it’s not going to happen in the next nine months.”

“If you want to preserve it [Israel] as a predominately Jewish state and a democracy, then you have to give Palestinian people and the Arab people who are living in that community, their own state in order to have self-determination and I hope that that happens and even once I am no longer president I will continue to try to promote that peaceful dialogue […] ”

“There’s been talk about a one-state solution or sort of a divided government. It’s hard for me to envision that being stable, there’s such deep distrust between the two peoples right now […] And the neighborhood is in such a mess that I continue to believe that a two-state solution is the best way. Now, over time that could evolve.”